The invention pertains to drying of microfilm contained within a flexible compartmentalized jacket and particularly pertains to a drying device using hollow needles for directing fluid into the jacket compartments for drying purposes.
Microfilm strips having images thereon are conventionally stored in transparent, flexible, polymeric envelopes or jackets having one or more compartments for protection purposes. The ends of the jacket compartments are not sealed to allow entry and exit of the microfilm strips as needed. The jacket thus provides protection from dust and debris and safe storage under most circumstances while the transparency of the walls allows the microfilm strips to be readily seen. In recent years unusual weather conditions in certain parts of the country have caused high waters and floods causing loss and damage to thousands of microfilm strips. It is not unusual for a hospital, business or government agency to store microfilm in a basement or lower floor, thus subjecting the microfilm to potential flood conditions.
When such floods occur salvage personnel attempt to rescue and reclaim as many of the microfilm strips as possible, most of which remain within the flexible storage jackets. Water will act to both damage the microfilm and cause the microfilm to adhere and react to the inner wall surfaces of the storage jacket causing irreparable damage to the microfilm strips. Many millions of dollars in valuable microfilm can be lost, requiring the microfilm images to be recreated, which is often not possible.
It is usual for salvage workers to manually remove the microfilm strips from the jackets, wipe or air dry the film and when dried, place it in new protective jackets. Such hand labor is tedious, time consuming and expensive. Oftentimes the wet microfilm is damaged as it is removed from the jacket due to the softened condition of the microfilm and the inexperience or lack of agility of the salvage personnel.
Therefore, based on the current methods of salvaging and drying microfilm and jackets which have been subjected to water such as from floods, and other wet conditions, the invention was conceived and one of the objectives is to provide a drying device and method for drying microfilm strips without having to remove the strips from the jacket compartments.
It is still another objective of the invention to provide a device to dry multiple microfilm jacket compartments simultaneously.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide a device to allow the outer surfaces of the jacket to be dried simultaneously with the inside compartments.
It is also another objective of the invention to provide a method to quickly dry the internal compartments of a microfilm jacket without damaging the film contained therein.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.
The invention therein pertains to devices and methods for salvaging and drying microfilm strips which have been wetted due to high water, floods, sprinkler malfunctions and the like.
One form of the drying device herein includes a frame having a movable needle assembly. A standard jacket with multiple microfilm strip compartments is placed in the frame on the floor at one end. By manually sliding the needle assembly, the needles contact the open end of the jacket and penetrate the compartments. In the preferred embodiment a foot operated valve allows a suitable fluid such as air to pass through the needles into the compartments, thereby forcing any moisture therefrom. The microfilm contained within the compartments is not damaged by the needle or fluid penetration and is quickly dried by the fluid injection. The floor of the device has a series of apertures through which a heated fluid such as air is blown. In addition, an external conduit forces warm fluid such as air against the upper, outer surfaces of the jacket for drying purposes. Thus, in a matter of seconds a microfilm jacket can be completely dried both inside and outside and once again be ready for use to store microfilm strips.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a hand held drying device and method is disclosed which can be used to dry the inside of microfilm jackets when circumstances demand such as the need to dry a relatively small number of jackets in a quick and efficient manner.